A video from Didier using a GI-IC piece

Another video from Didier using a GI-IC piece

Highway Equality and Anchor Community Howl are new on the upper widget. On the lower widget are two Sappho Fragments sung by Cathy Bell over Two of the Short Stories.

The Miles Bootleg for Europe 1969 has arrived. I am only on the first of the four discs but that is amazing. These are live performances between In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. The band is Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea on e-piano, Dave Holland and Jack de Johnette. The repertoire goes back to Monk standards like Round Midnight and forward to pieces for BB. There is also a fair amount of 2nd great 5tet material. No other live recordings cover this range.

There is so much to say about this music. Last night I listened through to the Return to Forever album on ECM and wondered why Chick Corea came back from the explosive music of the bootleg to that smoother sound. Miles claims that it was his idea that CC specialise in e-piano.

Some commentators think that the reason why this music is so free is down to Dave Holland and JdJ. Strange that DH will have learned to play free in London and helped move Miles on.

Wayne Shorter is also on fire - more so than either the great 5tet recordings or the later records where he is leader. At times it sounds like WS is picking up the baton that Trane left in his final recordings.

Last night I went to Stop Look and Listen which is the first Saturday of every month under the Royal George near the Totenham Court Rd tube station. The club has been run for two years by Zoe Konez. She played her set mostly with a drummer and blended very well with her percussive style hitting the strings on the upper fretboard. The top of the bill was Kal Lavelle who has had success on i-tunes in the SS category. She is a powerful performer and towards the end of the song she would move off the mike and sing into the room without sound reinforcement. I have never seen this done before and it is very effective.

Sophie Jamieson had a guitarist playing a red Telecaster with jangle and reverb and a bass player who played with a fairly round tone. They were admirably together given that I dont think they have played that many gigs as a trio. It turns out that Miranda Kitchener is one of Sophie's closest friends and that they lived together at Magdalene. MK spotted me and came up and introduced herself. I mailed Sarah about this.

previous - next